The present invention relates to a photography related to video cameras, camcorders, digital still cameras and others using a solid-state image sensing device, and more particularly to an electric camera using a solid-state image sensing device with a large number of pixels.
Electric cameras using solid-state image sensors such as CCDs (charge-coupled devices) include a so-called video camera or camcorder for taking moving images and a so-called digital still camera for taking still images. In recent years, video cameras with a still image taking function and digital still cameras with a moving image taking function have become available.
In a video camera to photograph moving images, it is generally assumed that the video is viewed on a display such as television monitor and thus the camera is designed to produce output signals conforming to a television system such as NTSC and PAL. Therefore, the effective number of vertically arranged pixels or picture elements on the image sensing device used in such a camera is determined to enable television signals to be generated. The NTSC system, for example, performs interlaced scanning on two fields, each of which has an effective scanning line number of about 240 lines (the number of scanning lines actually displayed on the monitor which is equal to the number of scanning lines in the vertical blanking period subtracted from the total number of scanning lines in each field). To realize this, the image sensing device has about 480 pixel rows as the standard effective number of vertically arranged pixels. That is, the signals of two vertically adjoining pixels in each field are mixed together inside or outside the image sensing device to generate about 240 scanning lines, and the combinations of pixels to be cyclically mixed together are changed from one field to another to achieve the interlaced scanning.
Some image sensing devices to take moving images according to the NTSC system have an area of pixels for image stabilization added to the area of effective pixel area, thus bringing the effective number of vertically arranged pixels to about 480 or more. In this case, an area beyond 480th pixels is read out at high speed during the vertical blanking period and therefore the signals thus read out are not used as effective signals. Therefore, the video signals can only be generated from those signals coming from the area of about 480 vertically arranged pixels. When such a camera is used to photograph a still image, it is relatively easy to generate a static image signal conforming to, for example, JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) from the signals coming from the same pixel area that is used to take a moving image. A problem remains, however, that the number of vertically arranged pixels obtained is limited to around 480, making it impossible to produce more detailed static image signals.
In a camera having an image sensing device with the area of pixels for image stabilization mentioned above, a method of alleviating this problem may involve using the entire area of effective pixels including the area of image stabilization pixels in photographing a still image. Even when photographing a still image, however, the photographed image needs to be monitored for check and, for that purpose, it is necessary to generate signals conforming to the television system from signals read out from all effective pixels.
An example of such a conventional camera has been proposed in JP-A-11-187306. In the camera disclosed in this publication, signals from all the effective pixels are read out taking two or more times the field period of the television system, stored in a memory means such as a field memory, and then subjected to interpolation processing for transformation into signals conforming to the field cycle and horizontal scan cycle of television.
This conventional camera, however, requires a large processing circuit, such as field memory, for signal conversion. Another drawback is that the image sensing device readout cycle is a plurality of times the field cycle, degrading the dynamic resolution. Even with the use of this circuit, the number of pixels obtained as the static image signals is limited to the number of effective pixels used for moving videos plus the area of image stabilization pixels.
In a digital still camera designed for taking still images, there has been a trend in recent years toward an increasing number of pixels used on the moving video image sensing device in order to obtain higher resolution static image signals. When taking a moving image or monitoring the video, it is necessary to generate signals that conform to the television system. The number of pixels on such an image sensing device, however, does not necessarily match the number of scanning lines of the television system and therefore some form of conversion means is required.
The conversion means may involve, as in the video camera with the area of image stabilization pixels, reading out signals from the image sensing device taking a longer time than the field cycle and interpolating them to generate television signals. This method has, in addition to the problem described above, a drawback that the readout cycle increases as the number of pixels increases, further degrading the dynamic resolution.
To mitigate this problem, JP-A-9-270959 discloses an apparatus which mixes together or culls the pixel signals inside the image sensing device to reduce the number of signals to be read and therefore the read cycle. Although this apparatus alleviates the problem of the degraded dynamic resolution, it requires a large processing circuit such as field memory to perform time-axis transformation to generate signals conforming to the television system and the image sensing device itself needs to have a special structure for performing desired mixing and culling.
The present invention relates to a photography of video cameras, camcorders, digital still cameras and others using a solid-state image sensing device, and more particularly to an electric camera using a solid-state image sensing device with a large number of pixels.
The conventional electric cameras, as described above, have drawbacks that when taking a still picture by using a video camera, the number of pixels is not sufficient and that when taking a moving image with a still camera, the associated circuit inevitably increases and the dynamic image quality deteriorates. Taking both moving and static images of satisfactory quality with a single camera is difficult to achieve. In addition to solving the above problems, to obtain good dynamic picture quality by using an image sensing device having a large number of pixels intended for still images requires extracting a pixel area that is used to realize an image stabilizing function. The conventional art and cameras do not offer a means to accomplish this function.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electric camera that solves these problems and which uses an image sensing device with a sufficient number of pixels for still images and enables taking of highly detailed still images and a moving video taking with reduced image quality degradation without increasing circuitry such as field memory. It is also an object of the present invention to provide an electric camera that can also realize the image stabilizing function.
According to one aspect of this invention, the electric camera to realize the above objectives has: an image sensing device with a light receiving surface having N vertically arranged pixels and an arbitrary number of pixels arranged horizontally, N being equal to or more than three times the number of effective scanning lines M of a display screen of a television system; a driver to drive the image sensing device to vertically mix or cull signal charges accumulated in individual pixels of every K pixels to produce a number of lines of output signals which corresponds to the number of effective scanning lines M, K being at least one of integers equal to or less than an integral part of a quotient of N divided by M; and a signal processing unit to generate image signals by using the output signals of the image sensing device.
As explained above, since this invention eliminates the limit on the number of vertically arranged pixels, an electric camera can be provided which enables taking of highly detailed still images and a satisfactory moving video taking by using an image sensing device with a large enough pixel number even for still images.